One Step Forward
by justaminuet
Summary: No one ever claimed marriage to be easy. Masamune x Megohime


_Disclaimer:_ I do not own _Samurai Warriors/Sengoku Musou_. It, and their version of Date Masamune, is the property of KOEI, and I'm making no profit. Megohime... Belongs to history, I guess.  
_Author's Note:_ Based on the LiveJournal comm 1sentence's Epsilon theme. Have to admit, I've been dying for someone to actually try to write a story about Masamune and his actual wife (not some random OC named "Sakura," or something). Since I still haven't seen any, I wound up giving up and trying myself. I figured there's always a chance that KOEI may add her, so something like this won't make me look back years from now and think, "Man, was I off." I hope. Also, I hope you enjoy!

**One Step Forward**

**Motion**  
Her bow to him the first time they met was delicate and shaky, and he decided he disliked her instantly.

**Cool**  
His first greeting was cold and unimpressed, and she never felt so embarrassed and enraged.

**Young**  
Thirteen and twelve were too young to do much of anything, but the Tamura clan desperately hoped it was old enough to keep their lands safe.

**Last**  
Before the marriage ceremony, Megohime was told she was her family's last hope in keeping the Date from invading; her father then told her they wished her luck.

**Wrong**  
She disliked her husband, but Megohime still thought there was something very wrong with his own mother hating him so much.

**Gentle**  
It became quickly apparent to everyone around that as brash and reckless as Masamune was, his wife was gentle and forgiving.

**One**  
Masamune had called Megohime an imbecile only one time during a fight, and a well thrown geta clanging against his helmet from his blind spot told him he probably shouldn't do it again.

**Thousand**  
There were thousands of lands he could send his army to conquer; it was just that all the very best lands happened to belong to her family.

**King**  
The death of Terumune made Masamune the undisputed leader of the Date, but Megohime was surprised to note that her husband was too busy grieving to care.

**Learn  
**"Well, I'll never know if you don't tell me!" she exclaimed, when Masamune yelled at her for the tenth time she'd never understand his dreams.

**Blur  
**The night of his poisoning was mostly jumbled and fuzzy, but he could still vaguely remember Megohime's panicked crying.

**Wait  
**He told her to wait for him as his men prepared his horse for war.

**Change  
**Megohime was surprised to find herself not nearly as upset as she thought she would be when she first heard that her husband had finally attacked one of her family's fiefs.

**Command  
**He had thousands of loyal men at his command, but almost none of them were family.

**Hold  
**The hastily written note he had sent to her to explain the slaying of her vassals was unceremoniously crushed in her tiny palm.

**Need  
**Sending her to Hideyoshi's castle was necessary of them, but they both knew the real reason why he chose her to go.

**Vision  
**His vision of Oushu was beginning to play out before him, but he found it a rather hollow victory when he had no one to gloat about it to.

**Attention  
**His first few letters to her were sent straight to the fire; it was only after Nene noticed their arrivals that Megohime reluctantly began to actually read them.

**Soul  
**Maybe he found safety in knowing that she'd be reading it far away from him, but Masamune was far more willing to be entirely truthful in the words that he wrote to her.

**Picture  
**Megohime once tried to picture the loudmouth, uncouth Masamune writing the sometimes almost poetic letters she received from him, and quickly found herself fighting fits of giggles.

**Fool  
**"Will you forgive me... for arriving late?" he added to salvage himself from looking a complete idiot, when he arrived unannounced at almost two in the morning to retrieve her.

**Mad  
**It was the epitome of madness to fall in love with a man that hated your family and betrayed your trust, but Megohime found that insanity wasn't so bad.

**Child  
**Everyone still saw them as children, but Masamune reassured her that they'd all be proven wrong soon enough.

**Now  
**"Your time is now," she whispered in his ear, as he fumed at an older daimyo's remark that the Date's golden age had passed.

**Shadow  
**Many daimyo never get out from their ancestors' shadows, but Megohime was quite certain that Masamune had already eclipsed them all.

**Goodbye  
**She told him she hated goodbyes, but he said it anyway, because he was never sure when it might be their last one.

**Hide  
**She knew Masamune was never good at hiding his anger or ambition, and it put most of his allies on guard.

**Fortune  
**His detractors would say that Masamune's rise to power and fame was pure luck, but Megohime knew that luck never lasted as long as her husband had.

**Safe  
**Her father's disapproving glare unnerved her, and it was only when Masamune cleared his throat to divert the attention that she began to feel at ease again.

**Ghost  
**He confessed to her in a whisper that sometimes he dreamt his father would return at night, only to cry of his son's utter failure.

**Book  
**Megohime did her best to make sure all the European books he loved so much were well hidden when Ieyasu's men were seen on the horizon.

**Eye  
**The ugly scars and deformation that had been his right eye were nothing more than hated reminders to Masamune, and he was perplexed when his wife told him she found him quite handsome even without the patch.

**Never  
**When younger, Masamune swore he'd never love his wife, but in the middle of the night, with absolutely nothing between them but their own heated breaths, the words come unbidden past his lips.

**Sing  
**Her habit of waking up early to listen to the birds in the garden, even if she had spent the night with him, made Masamune even less of a morning person than he usually was.

**Sudden  
**The horse bucked her off so quickly, that Masamune didn't even have a chance to cry out, his heart stopping when he watched her hit the ground with a sickening thud.

**Stop  
**No matter how many times Megohime pleaded with him, Masamune refused to completely end some of his more reckless endeavors.

**Time  
**The passage of years tended to break down most arranged marriages, while it seemed to only strengthen theirs.

**Wash  
**It had taken all her courage to sputter out a request to bathe together, only for him to turn bright red and stutter back.

**Torn  
**Her decision to choose husband over family still haunted her at times.

**History  
**She was okay with history embracing Masamune more so than her; if there was anyone to her that belonged to the ages, it was him.

**Power  
**Outside their home, Masamune was the all powerful daimyo whose men did his will without question, while inside their home, Megohime's word was absolute law.

**Bother  
**Masamune couldn't be bothered with being polite to all the vassals Ieyasu would occasionally send to his home, but he humored his wife's desire to play hostess, anyway.

**God  
**His fascination with the Christian God was something she wasn't quite sure she'd ever understand.

**Wall  
**"I'll overcome it," he once told her of his position under Ieyasu.

**Naked  
**Flesh to flesh, they'd bare their souls over things that, in the morning, they'd never admit to saying.

**Drive  
**His desire to control all of Japan was matched only by her desire to see it happen.

**Harm  
**She was aware that he loved diving right into the middle of the battle, but that didn't stop her heart from aching a little every time he came home with new wounds.

**Precious  
**He'd tell people nothing meant more to him than Oushu, but when a daimyo half drunkenly told him during a party that Megohime looked like a loose woman, it took ten men to stop Masamune from literally beating him to death.

**Hunger  
**Sometimes when he came home from extended periods apart, he wouldn't say a word; would only grab her hand and almost drag her to his room, not caring who saw or what they thought.

**Believe  
**They did not have what many thought to be the perfect marriage, but it was perfect for them, and that was all they cared about.


End file.
